xref: /freebsd/lib/libkvm/kvm_open.3 (revision 734e82fe33aa764367791a7d603b383996c6b40b)
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32.\"     @(#)kvm_open.3	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
33.\"
34.Dd March 20, 2017
35.Dt KVM_OPEN 3
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm kvm_open ,
39.Nm kvm_open2 ,
40.Nm kvm_openfiles ,
41.Nm kvm_close
42.Nd initialize kernel virtual memory access
43.Sh LIBRARY
44.Lb libkvm
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.In fcntl.h
47.In kvm.h
48.Ft kvm_t *
49.Fn kvm_open "const char *execfile" "const char *corefile" "const char *swapfile" "int flags" "const char *errstr"
50.Ft kvm_t *
51.Fo kvm_open2
52.Fa "const char *execfile"
53.Fa "const char *corefile"
54.Fa "int flags"
55.Fa "char *errbuf"
56.Fa "int (*resolver)(const char *name, kvaddr_t *addr)"
57.Fc
58.Ft kvm_t *
59.Fn kvm_openfiles "const char *execfile" "const char *corefile" "const char *swapfile" "int flags" "char *errbuf"
60.Ft int
61.Fn kvm_close "kvm_t *kd"
62.Sh DESCRIPTION
63The functions
64.Fn kvm_open ,
65.Fn kvm_open2 ,
66and
67.Fn kvm_openfiles
68return a descriptor used to access kernel virtual memory
69via the
70.Xr kvm 3
71library routines.
72Both active kernels and crash dumps are accessible
73through this interface.
74.Pp
75The
76.Fa execfile
77argument is the executable image of the kernel being examined.
78This file must contain a symbol table.
79If this argument is
80.Dv NULL ,
81the currently running system is assumed,
82as determined from
83.Xr getbootfile 3 .
84.Pp
85The
86.Fa corefile
87argument is the kernel memory device file.
88It can be either
89.Pa /dev/mem
90or a crash dump core generated by
91.Xr savecore 8 .
92If
93.Fa corefile
94is
95.Dv NULL ,
96the default indicated by
97.Dv _PATH_MEM
98from
99.In paths.h
100is used.
101It can also be set to a special value
102.Pa /dev/null
103by utilities like
104.Xr ps 1
105that do not directly access kernel memory.
106.Pp
107The
108.Fa swapfile
109argument is currently unused.
110.Pp
111The
112.Fa flags
113argument indicates read/write access as in
114.Xr open 2
115and applies only to the core file.
116Only
117.Dv O_RDONLY ,
118.Dv O_WRONLY ,
119and
120.Dv O_RDWR
121are permitted.
122.Pp
123The
124.Nm kvm
125library provides two different error reporting mechanisms.
126One provides backward compatibility with the SunOS kvm library, while the
127other provides an improved error reporting framework.
128The mechanism used by a descriptor is determined by the function used to
129open the descriptor.
130.Pp
131The
132.Fn kvm_open
133function is the Sun kvm compatible open call.
134Here, the
135.Fa errstr
136argument indicates how errors should be handled.
137If it is
138.Dv NULL ,
139no errors are reported and the application cannot know the
140specific nature of the failed kvm call.
141If it is not
142.Dv NULL ,
143errors are printed to
144.Dv stderr
145with
146.Fa errstr
147prepended to the message, as in
148.Xr perror 3 .
149Normally, the name of the program is used here.
150The string is assumed to persist at least until the corresponding
151.Fn kvm_close
152call.
153.Pp
154The
155.Fn kvm_open2
156and
157.Fn kvm_openfiles
158functions provide
159.Bx
160style error reporting.
161Here, error messages are not printed out by the library.
162Instead, the application obtains the error message
163corresponding to the most recent kvm library call using
164.Fn kvm_geterr
165(see
166.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ) .
167The results are undefined if the most recent kvm call did not produce
168an error.
169Since
170.Fn kvm_geterr
171requires a kvm descriptor, but the open routines return
172.Dv NULL
173on failure,
174.Fn kvm_geterr
175cannot be used to get the error message if open fails.
176Thus,
177.Fn kvm_open2
178and
179.Fn kvm_openfiles
180will place any error message in the
181.Fa errbuf
182argument.
183This buffer should be _POSIX2_LINE_MAX characters large (from
184<limits.h>).
185.Pp
186The
187.Fa resolver
188argument points to a function used by the
189.Nm kvm
190library to map symbol names to kernel virtual addresses.
191When the
192.Fa resolver
193function is called,
194.Fa name
195specifies the requested symbol name.
196If the function is able to resolve the name to an address,
197the address should be set in
198.Fa addr
199and the function should return zero.
200If the function is not able to resolve the name to an address,
201it should return a non-zero value.
202When opening a native kernel image,
203.Fa resolver
204may be set to
205.Dv NULL
206to use an internal function to resolve symbol names.
207Non-native kernel images
208.Pq such as when cross-debugging a crash dump
209require a valid
210.Fa resolver .
211.Sh RETURN VALUES
212The
213.Fn kvm_open ,
214.Fn kvm_open2 ,
215and
216.Fn kvm_openfiles
217functions return a descriptor to be used
218in all subsequent kvm library calls.
219The library is fully re-entrant.
220On failure,
221.Dv NULL
222is returned, in which case
223.Fn kvm_open2
224and
225.Fn kvm_openfiles
226write the error message into
227.Fa errbuf .
228.Pp
229.Rv -std kvm_close
230.Sh ERRORS
231The
232.Fn kvm_close
233function may fail and set the global variable
234.Va errno
235for any of the errors specified for
236.Xr close 2 .
237.Pp
238The
239.Fn kvm_close
240function may also fail and set
241.Va errno
242if:
243.Bl -tag -width Er
244.It Bq Er EINVAL
245The value passed via
246.Fa kd
247was
248.Dv NULL .
249.El
250.Sh SEE ALSO
251.Xr close 2 ,
252.Xr open 2 ,
253.Xr kvm 3 ,
254.Xr kvm_getargv 3 ,
255.Xr kvm_getenvv 3 ,
256.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ,
257.Xr kvm_getprocs 3 ,
258.Xr kvm_native 3 ,
259.Xr kvm_nlist 3 ,
260.Xr kvm_read 3 ,
261.Xr kvm_write 3 ,
262.Xr kmem 4 ,
263.Xr mem 4
264.Sh BUGS
265There should not be three open calls.
266The ill-defined error semantics
267of the Sun library and the desire to have a backward-compatible library
268for
269.Bx
270left little choice.
271.Sh HISTORY
272The
273.Fn kvm_open2
274function first appeared in
275.Fx 11.0 .
276